Inspiron 1501 memory limits

Before you give advice you should read the entire thread.  People upgrading to a 64-bit Operating System are able to use more ram. 

well that's a bunch of <ADMIN NOTE: Substitute character  removed as per TOU> and you know it is. mine is a 64-bit. i'm a professional at this. so before you try and tell me that i'm wrong you should try it first. i run a 64-bit windows 7 on mine and 2 X 1 GB is all it can handle.

Ok well Several of us on here have had no issue running 4 or even 8GB on a 64 bit OS on the 1501 .... So Perhaps you bought the wrong speed or voltage for the Modules? Or just plain got unlucky and purchased an incompatible brand!

It does occasionally happen. I am sure this is your particular issue. I bought 2x2GB modules and they worked great with Win 7 Professional 64 Bit recognizing all 4 gigs. Many have reported they used 2x4GB modules and a 64Bit OS and had all 8GB.

I wonder did you flash the BIOS first to the most recent BIOS ?

what speed and Brand memory did you use?

I hope you did not mix the module brands or specs , did you ?

So Let Me Know,  and I can help you get yours working with more than just 2x1GB.

That way I dont have to tell you that you are wrong, I am sure for whatever reason yours isnt right now so you are right

but only on your specific machine ...

Other Inspiron 1501 have no issue at all what so ever with 64 Bit OS recognizing up to 8GB total using 2x matched modules of the correct speed memory. As for being a professional at this it Might help you to look a bit more professional if you Didn't Curse at the other posters

the Dell web site says only 2GB  but it is wrong !

I am running 4GB as we speak and have been for many months, I also added an SSD and it smokes , boots in 17 seconds for Win7 x64 Pro

many on here have used 2x4gb and are running 8GB of Ram in their Inspiron 1501

many are running 2x2gb

Make sure to flash your BIOS to the newest BIOS before you get ready to reinstall everything and add the memory.

also make sure you have all the drivers needed before you start your CLEAN install.

You can bypass most of the DELL bloatware and just put on what you will need

X64 Rocks well at least for crappy MS OS

I myself have it as a dual Boot so I can use Linux for everything except gaming

i can't seem to flash my bios. it says error code 1275.

In Dell's defense, the Inspiron 1501 did ship with a 32 bit operating system. Such an OS would only recognize the entire amount of installed RAM up to roughly 2.5 GB. That amount of RAM would require mismatched modules which puts the system into single channel mode. The next higher amount over 2GB that can be installed with matching modules is 4GB.

Imagine the calls to customer support if the end users installed 4GB like I have and the operating system only showed 2.4 GB. The easy solution is to list the maximum supported memory as 2GB even though the Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset can handle something ridiculous like 8 or 16 GB.

Uh Oh that does not sound so good, what version of BIOS are you using ? perhaps it will still recognize different modules from a different manufacturer. Hold on and I will look up which memory I bought that did work on my machine.

Crucial V4 CT064V4SSD2BAA 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Kingston HyperX 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Laptop Memory Model KHX4200S2LL/2G

I used 2 of these modules and they worked great as they were lowest latency I could find

I also used this module in a very similar Inspiron model from around the same time and it worked fine as well,

I believe it defaulted to the 533 speed   but 2 of these worked as well for 4GB on the 64 Bit OS

G.SKILL 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory Model F2-5300CL4S-2GBSQ

I also installed this SATAII SSD into the SATA I interface of the 1501 Inspiron and it worked great , in fact it worked at speeds you would expect of a SATA II and almost as fast as a SATA II SSD !  

I am using a 2.4.3 bios

Hi mz7181,

This notebook uses ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset, which is able to handle 8 GB RAM (2 * 4 GB 533 MHz DDR2 SO-DIMM). You must use 64-bit OS in order to see all the RAM, and both RAM modules recommend to run at same bus clock speed of 533 MHz, or 667 MHz (Big_D_Bobby posted that he uses this speed). There is 1 member posted that he used 800 MHz, but no detail of which brand he uses.

In order to prevent confusion with other reader, I would like to provide more detail about maximum memory again for Inspire 1501

1. Uses ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset, which renamed to ATI Radeon Xpress 200 later

2. Motherboard supports 2 RAM modules, each module can be 4 GB, 533 MHz, DDR2, SO-DIMM, this is the official speed and size supported by Dell, but chipset supports all DDR2 bus speed

3. Several members successfully used 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2

4. Not recommend to mix RAM module of different clock speed. So install both modules of 533 MHz only, or 667 MHz only

5. Very few members installed 800 MHz, and they never post whether they mix RAM of different clock speed or both of same clock speed

6. BIOS firmware version supporting 8 GB are 1.7.0 (original), and 2.6.3 (latest)

7. Default Windows 32-bit OS comes with this laptop will only detect 2.3 GB RAM

8. Needs to replace OS with 64-bit in order to utilize/see 8 GB RAM in OS, e.g. Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Linux

9. Always use BIOS to check RAM detected instead of Windows. BIOS will correctly detect physical memory installed, such as 8 GB, while Windows or other 32-bit OS will not. If you don't detect, post both RAM detected by BIOS, OS used, BIOS version, RAM brand/clock, in order to get help

10. Maximum RAM size for DDR2 SO-DIMM as of 2013 is 4 GB. So don't bother to ask whether it supports 16 GB RAM, as there is no manufacturer producing 8 GB RAM module, and never will

11. This laptop's motherboard uses SATA 1, but SATA 2 or SATA 3 SSD hard disk are compatible regardless of which manufacturer. So any SSD with SATA connector is supported, e.g. Crucial, Kingston, Intel, OCZ, Corsair, SanDisk, Mushkin. All SATA 3 are backward compatible with SATA 1, so there is no compatibility issue. You will not gain SATA 3's performance because the ATI Radeon Xpress chipset limiting you to SATA 1 speed only. There is no way to upgrade internal hard disk to run at SATA 3 speed

12. The only way to upgrade to SATA 3 is to install ExpressCard SATA 3 card with external SATA 3 disk, e.g. www.sonnettech.com/.../temposataiii6gbec34.html, but you are dealing with external hard disk

13. Nobody post about mSATA SSD drive yet

14. If you want to upgrade BIOS firmware, then you must runs Windows 32-bit (such as Win XP). This installer will not able to upgrade BIOS in Windows 64-bit of any version. You may want to cut a partition out to install Win XP 32-bit,  uses external USB hard disk, or USB thumb drive

Following summarize the optimum performance upgrade to fellow members

1. Replace 2 * 256 MB 533 MHz RAM with 2 * 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM (if you want to try 800 MHz, bring your laptop to the shop to test before you buy)

2. Replace internal 80 GB hard disk with SSD SATA 2/3 drive of any brand and size (recommend > 160 GB)

3. Upgrade BIOS if you annoyed with the bad battery warning. If you do, you must install it using Windows 32-bit (e.g. XP)

Finally, I would like to correct my post on 01-03-2013 2:56 PM, which I wrongly said it was using Intel chipset. This laptop uses ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset, as none of Intel chipset supports  AMD CPU. Apologize for any confusion

OK your BIOS Version Should Support the RAM I mentioned,

also above is very good and accurate post , only info on SATA is off by one,

this machine is SATA I  interface NOT SATA II  BUT GOOD NEWS IS SATA II RUNS FINE Because

SATA II is backwards compatible to SATA I  no problem,

SATA III is not backwards compatible to SATA I as far as I know

SATA III is backwards to SATA II , SO best bet is to use SATA II on the SATA i Interface of the Inspiron 1501

the controllers on board are SATA 150  (SATA I)

Still the above post is great

My SATA II SSD Performs great in the Inspiron 1501

mine doesn't recognize all the ram i put in. i put in 3gb and it only recognizes 1918 mb. not sure why some people have the good luck of it working and others not so much